It’s 2013 at last! I can’t deny that (except on the genealogy front) 2012 was a rubbish year. So I was delighted to see Geniaus suggesting a new geneameme: Accentuate the Positive 2012. What better way to start the new year?

Here’s my contribution:

1. An elusive ancestor I found was Griffith Owen or Owens, my great-grandfather. The family story was that his son, my grandfather, was from Anglesey, but it was Griffith who was born there. I finally tracked him down, via several howlingly bad census transcriptions (1901 and 1911), to Llanfaethlu, a dot on the map of that island. (See no 4)

One week old

2. A precious family photo I found was… Since my mother’s death I’ve had a look through some of the family photos she kept. The most precious to me is the ones my dad took of mum and me just after I was born and the ones from our first Christmas as a family. I’m planning to post some more of these in the next few days.

3. An ancestor’s grave I found was Lucy Simpson’s. I didn’t see it myself, because it’s in the old family graveyard at Moyne Farm, but my generous cousin Wayne Morris sent me a recent photo of what remains of it. The headstone appears to have broken in two in the past few years.

4. An important vital record I found was the 1891 census record of my grandfather Richard aged 9, which gave me the names of his parents. It also showed that he was not born on Anglesey after all. It was his father Griffith who came from that beautiful island. Now where on earth, or Anglesey, was ‘Llanfentlily’ (1901 census) or ‘Llanfenthty’ (1911)? Time for a spot of palaeography and a map. (See no 1)

5. A newly found family member who shared… who to choose from? The joy of social media is that cousins and their family members have been getting in touch this year and it’s always a joy to make contact and read about their stories if they want to share them. Thank you to Marty, Michael, Karen, Betty, Jim, Trina, Sharron, Gary, Dan, Therese, Wayne, Sandra, Michelle, Ken, Julie and Lee. And anyone I’ve missed because I didn’t know you were a rellie.

Murder trial reported

6. A geneasurprise I received was finding out that my 3x great-grandfather, Nicholas Delaney, had probably been murdered. Since he was the one who started me on my addiction to interest in genealogy, it was a sad moment.

7. My 2012 blog post that I was particularly proud of wasBack to Blog – death and renewal, because that was the post which got me back to blogging after my mother’s death. It’s positive because I got back in touch with my genea-pals after some weeks of silence and you were so kind and sent me such lovely messages. Thank you. The genealogy community can be wonderful.

I chose Mary Maude Delaney, nee Wilson, my kindly great-grandmother, in an unusual, informal, photo of her, smiling while hanging out the washing. I wrote about washday in the times when everything was done by hand, a hated job. I learned a lot about the back-breaking business of doing the laundry while researching that post.

9. A new piece of software I mastered wasEvernote. I can’t pretend I’ve really mastered it, but I’m learning, and I use it all the time. I don’t know how I did without it (well, I do, I used lots of different files, folders, clipping programs…). I think it was Geniaus who alerted me to it, and I was hooked from the start.

10. A social media tool I enjoyed using for genealogy was Twitter. Now 2012 was the year of Google+, and it is excellent for genealogy, but I confess I have more fun on Twitter. It’s also a great news feed, and alerts me to posts I might otherwise have missed.

The original geneameme has 20 positive points and so far I’ve written about the first 10. Because this is already a long post I’ll come back to the rest of them next time. Watch this space for more positivity…

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About rebelhand

A Rebel Hand is:
about Nicholas Delaney, Irish rebel of 1798, transported as a convict to New South Wales, roadbuilder, innkeeper and farmer. My great-great-great grandfather.
Other ancestors transported to Australia, like Sarah Marshall, John Simpson and James Thomas Richards, pop up as well.
This blog's also about the historical background to their lives, in England, Ireland, and Australia.
My respectable Welsh ancestors sometimes get a look in.

Chris, that’s wonderful! Thank you so much for the nomination and for your kind words. You and all the blogging community have been such a support and this starts 2013 on a high note. Thank you. (Feel like I’m at the Oscars now)

I would love to express my appreciation on your blog, but for some weird reason I can’t comment on blogspot, so I’m very sorry about that.
I’ve tried all sorts of ways round. Does anyone know a clever way of commenting that’s completely passed me by?

It’s always such a pleasure to read your Blog and this post is no exception. I’m also very appreciative of the interest you show in mine, and especially your responses to the comments I make on your posts. Therefore, it’s a delight to nominate you for the “Wonderful Team Member Readership Award” which you can read about on: http://caiteile.com/2013/01/03/wonderful-team-member-readership-award-nominations/ Wishing you every happiness for 2013 and lots more wonderful discoveries🙂 … Cheerio

Love Geneabloggers. I’ve been on it just over three months. I received “An Early Christmas Gift” this year and it felt great to have a community of bloggers to share my post about that gift. I’m sure they will hear more about it later. 🙂.

You’ve had an excellent year with your geneablog offset by personal sadness. We’re all pleased to see you back in action and isn’t it lovely that you’re finding some lovely photos like that tiny one week old, you. Thank you for your nod to me re the women’s work -that washday post was so interesting and certainly reminded me of Mondays in my childhood:-) Sooo much easier now.

What a great discovery with the Anglesey census – I can even imagine how you pronounce Llanfaethlu.

Look forward to the next 10 positives and also your blogging year in 2013…thanks for sharing with us all.

Thank you, Pauleen. There are plenty of photos but when to find the time to go through them?
As for mentioning you – credit where it’s due, and you inspired me as you often do.
Here’s to 2013 and all our discoveries. May brick walls crumble and shy ancestors come out to play!

Thank you! And thanks, too, for helping me see that it’s been a good year. It’s such a great idea for a geneameme.

It was you, on G+ I think, who first mentioned Evernote and I thought – if Geniaus is talking about it, it’s worth a look! I’ve hardly scratched the surface but love it and would encourage any other genies to give it a try.

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Header image based on View of Sydney Cove from Dawes Point by Joseph Lycett. By State Library of New South Wales (cat a5491074), CC BY-SA
Full details: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:View_of_Sydney_Cove_from_Dawes_Point_by_Joseph_Lycett_page74_a5491074.JPG